The present invention relates to a foldable transport and storage container of plastic.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
Foldable containers for transporting and storing goods are known which include sidewalls that can be fully folded inwardly or outwardly in order to adjust the container volume to the need at hand. Containers of this type are also known as folding box and typically include a container base to which the sidewalls are linked through hinges. When folding the container, the shorter transverse sidewalls are first folded inwards and then the longitudinal sidewalls are folded inwards. When the sidewalls are taller than half the length of the adjacent side of the folding box, the neighboring sidewalls as well as the respectively opposite sidewalls are placed on top of one another. As a consequence, the hinges of the individual sidewalls in the container base must be arranged at different levels or the sidewalls have varying heights in order for the foldable sidewalls to lie flatly upon one another and to form with the container base a compact stack. The presence of sidewalls of different heights, especially those that oppose one another, as well as the presence of hinges arranged on the container base at different heights adversely affect production and manufacturing costs of folding boxes of this type.
DE 10 2009 005 212 A1 discloses a foldable container having a linkage of the foldable sidewalls to the container base using hinges which have hinge bolts articulated in hinge bolt receivers having recesses in such a way that the hinge bolts are movable in the hinge bolt receivers from a lower end position to an upper end position so that a planar placement of two sidewalls on top of one another is facilitated. As the hinge bolts in the hinge bolt receivers not only pivot but also move vertically, the sidewall oftentimes is caused to tilt during folding up. In other words, the pivot axis of a sidewall does not extend parallel to the base of the folding box during folding up.
It would be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved foldable storage and transport container to address prior art problems and to obviate other prior art shortcomings.